An open letter to ILX & mods re: an alternative to the current system

KDT, thanks for trying. gbx, thanks for trying. everybody who tried to keep it snark-free, thanks for trying.

FTR I'm pretty much w WmC on this.

No, actually in this instance she got SB-ed for the first post and a copule of them were pretty soon after it was posted.

yeah I will agree that this is bullshit btw, SB'ing someone for the first post in a thread is assholism and should result in autoban

mods get on this right now or I want my money back

$10 heading to yr paypal acct right now.

fuck flagged posts, people should just be more ready to criticize & receive criticism on their posts and board presence imo. don't think this is a structural thing & more just, why use code to bypass simple effective human interaction? everyone anonymously drawing mod attention to conflagratory posts seriously sounds like hell to me. if someone's offended you just confront them about it either on board in the thread or off board through email, & if u really think it merits being deleted just start a thread on mrf for it. if you're really mystified as to why you've gotten sb'd just ask for ppl to give some more constructive advice

― samosa gibreel, Monday, 22 November 2010 00:18 (3 minutes ago)

^^^

Pash maybe those SBs were of the "oh ffs not this bullshit YET AGAIN OH FUCK NO" variety, but what would I know nb i have not sbed anyone on this thred.

I think it would be fairly straight-forward to modify a stylesheet so that the SB link wasn't shown, and wouldn't require a programmer or very much mod effort.

hmm the SB button is a span with a class of "bookmark", not v well named but it does seem to be unique. To this page at least.

Maybe, Trayce, I dunno.

Maybe we need a "stfu, we've done this" yellowcard button.

(I am speaking generally here not about this thread in partic)

"Wow, she called everyone who disagreed with her a two-year-old and people clicked the SB button? What assholes!"

I thought she was saying the sb feature assumes users are 2yos and a more detailed feature would be giving people more credit, but hey I'm happy to be wrong.

2a) posters wouldn't "suddenly" disappear after their 51st SB. granted, many (if not most!) of all SB'd users probably had it coming, but it's usually the apparently random timing of SBs that irk some ppl. like i get it that user X has a history of dickishness, but the final infraction has occasionally been relatively innocuous.
2b) pretty sure this has been made as clear as possible, sadly. kate has picked up 4 suggest BANS for starting a wholly innocuous thread, and they are now part of her total ban count. why? because ppl are dickbags, that's why. full stop. if this thread had been FLAGGED by four users, it likely would not have come to moderator attn, because 4 seems like a pretty low threshold. moreover, if it had hit whatever arbitrary threshold you'd like, any sane moderator like WmC would come along and go "wait, this is not at all controversial, IGNORE"
2c) flags are anonymous, and only trigger action when a threshold is reached. posters don't know their posts have been flagged until a mod says "dude, ppl are not pleased with this post you made, and i agree, u r a douche". that might be the end of it! or maybe they get banned, i dunno. point is, flags reduce whining because there's no longer a mandatory sentencing attached to behavior that may, or may not, have been truly inflammatory.

xp AA that's precisely how i read what she said, too.

$10 heading to yr paypal acct right now.

did I really only give 10 bones during pledge drive? fuck me, I'm an asshole, everybody sb me immediately

can I just say that while I am often frustrated with and irritated by KDT/MB, the original post in this thread was reasonable, and it was carefully timed not to fall in the middle of any other metashit -- a good attempt to talk borad mechanics. And she still got four SBs for it. Doesn't that make it obvious that she's getting SB'd for existing, not for anything specific she did wrong in that post?

That's the kind of bullshit that I think a flag post system instead of a SB system might help eliminate.

― Unfrozen Caveman Board-Lawyer (WmC), Sunday, November 21, 2010 7:00 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

Okay I typed this up and didn't post it, but if K-dogg is gettin sb'd for this shit then I need to speak up... because when they came for the jews, i did not speak up~

I know the SB conversation has been had a million zillion times, but it seems to me that it's still worth asking, y'know, why every other messageboard in the world goes with a post flagging system and why you can't find any other place that allows literally anyone to anonymously suggest a ban for any user they please, for any reason they please. I would think that the answer is super obvious - it's just not a good moderating solution, and in fact it's a really weird and bad one. On another board I post on - much bigger than this one - you just report individual posts and have to give a reason with your report. Mods review the reports and make moderating decisions about trouble posts and hand out a probation, ban, or permaban based on the seriousness of the offense and on the poster's history. Using the report function frivolously has consequences, again either a probation or ban depending on the poster's history. This is the best way to moderate a big message board, because you're addressing problems as they spring up instead of treating any user who crosses a magical threshold to a weird This Is Your Life tribunal. And because you need a reason to report someone - a reason besides "I don't like this poster" - the function maintains its integrity and doesn't become a passive-aggressive tool for creating board drama. The current system leads to some comical and occasionally merciful results and I wouldn't even say I'm an advocate of change, but there are a million empirically better ways of moderating a message board. I think ultimately anything that leans more towards an automated system than mod discretion (like the auto-escalating temp bans) is A Bad Idea.

tldr - This unique system the ilx coders came up with is bad and dumb. KDT getting a host of sb's for starting a thread in good faith and making reasonable points just shows how retarded this shit is.

I'm not opposed to the idea of a Flag Post function IF Keith and Stet are open to have it coded. That said, making it anonymous is a TERRIBLE idea as there's never any way of knowing whether or not the flagging is coming from a person with an ulterior motive for wanting to get someone banned. But I've got a feeling that this systems only seems simpler, the devil is in the details and it could well end up causing as many clusterfucks and perceived injustices as the current system.

A much simpler solution would be for mods to remove any and all SBs that aren't for obvious egregious posts. Or just throw the whole SB system in the bin and go back to moderator discretion, maybe with more use of yellow cards. But then people would complain about centralisation of power. It's no-win whatever happens.

Aerosmith - this is ridiculous, you can't actually see what the SBs are for. And yes, Autumn Almanac is correctly interpreting her there from what I can see.

kinda think requiring people to justify in words flags/SBs might be a bit much. we're trying to make LESS work for mods, not more. that is: rely initially on how much attn a post attracts (# of flags), which then automates a mod notification. at that point, i'm willing to trust that the mods can determine if flags were made in bad faith or not.

2b) would ppl be less at risk of getting banned because they are irritating?

Even if they're a minority, if there are people who are getting SBs without knowing why, there should be a way for them to find out? Even if a majority already get why and don't care/can't change, it'd still be a good thing.

and u couldn't ditch anonymity, that's ridiculous. either a post is offensive per community standards (which, flawed tho ilx is, i think it's OK to apply a 'know it if i see it' policy), or someone's just peeved at someone like kate having the temerity to start a thread about something.

I think a few people have mentioned that they fully intend to ban people and not flag posts.

Taking the opposite view of KDT on that isn't that unreasonable a position - irl I tend to dislike people based on their behaviour. I may or may not challenge them on something or try to change that behaviour (flag) but for the most part if I find someone to be an unpleasant dick I'd try not to be around them any more (sb) - like you might stop someone saying racist shit at work if everyone tells them to quit it but ultimately you're still stuck working with a racist. So you try to get the person removed (sb) - or remove yourself if the system won't let you and can't bear to be around them (I am off the Internet-maracas.jps)

A much simpler solution would be for mods to remove any and all SBs that aren't for obvious egregious posts. Or just throw the whole SB system in the bin and go back to moderator discretion, maybe with more use of yellow cards. But then people would complain about centralisation of power. It's no-win whatever happens.

This is otm -- I for one am 100% comfortable with god-mods even though I feel confident that both HI DERE & jjjusten would have banned me at some point for my egregious assholism on politics threads.

I actually share some of Princess TamTam(wish I knew who that was)'s concerns in re: cliqueishness but I don't think that's actually how SB has played out on ilx, which mitigates the problem. It's like: if you're not an aggressively active poster, you don't have a prayer of surviving the onslaught of an ad-hoc coordinated crew's worth of on-board abuse. SB gives those posters, largely ones we couldn't name because they're quieter, a weapon against bullies. That's why I like the SB.

the people who sb'd kate upon first post when there was nothing else yet posted were being dicks and that was unfair, but do you think the majority of any 51 sb's are similarly groundless? like d'uh probably not

fwiw i have decent coding xp - cld def w/ fuck with source code just for autoreplace alone - but then yall can live in the world that i create & then jaundy can either learn to program or gtfo i guess.

http://www.mattbrandenburg.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Asinine-America-HATERS-GONNA-HATE1.jpg

also this thread is the perfect encapsulation of why lol bans are amazing

i have sb'd over a dozen ppl itt

er, that is, i think some posters would not be comfortable calling bullshit on other posters behavior if they knew it wasn't anonymous. now, anonymity IS bad when yr vote is just to get someone off the island. if it's just to say "hey mods look at this" then who cares who flagged what.

Lamp I know you hate me but you bring the lols and for that I give you the gift of suggest ban

just to add some detail of what I know about the current site - afaik it was developed with java EE. I was part of task force POXY FULE back in the day, so I had some exposure to the dev process. no one really wanted java EE, because it's not a scripting language anybody can pick up quickly, but it's what keith knew and fuck if he didn't man up and rewrite the whole goddamn site while a bunch of us armchair script hacks wrung our hands and debated php vs perl vs fubar.

Or just throw the whole SB system in the bin and go back to moderator discretion, maybe with more use of yellow cards. But then people would complain about centralisation of power. It's no-win whatever happens.

Honestly, they should just bring the hammer down on the whiners. This shit doesn't get to be up for discussion on a lot of other messageboards... I know that's sort of counter to the democratic ideal of ilx or whatever (lol) but trust me, I know from experience that boards with a more fascist approach are much more harmonious and life is simpler and more pleasurable for everyone.

SB gives those posters, largely ones we couldn't name because they're quieter, a weapon against bullies. That's why I like the SB.

― aerosmith: the acid house years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, November 21, 2010 6:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

dude this is precisely what anonymous flagging would do, too! AND it would stop bullies from SBing ppl just for lolz. like the Main Thing you're doing is making a button that says "ATTN MODS!" instead of one that says "HOPE U NEVER POST HERE AGAIN"

the people who sb'd kate upon first post when there was nothing else yet posted were being dicks and that was unfair, but do you think the majority of any 51 sb's are similarly groundless? like d'uh probably not

Tuomas's SBing proved that even a small minority of SBs on stupid grounds is not acceptable.

Honestly, they should just bring the hammer down on the whiners. This shit doesn't get to be up for discussion on a lot of other messageboards... I know that's sort of counter to the democratic ideal of ilx or whatever (lol) but trust me, I know from experience that boards with a more fascist approach are much more harmonious and life is simpler and more pleasurable for everyone.

it's decided then -- I am the sole site mod and will make the calls

glad we had this thread, show me how to lock it & we'll be on our way

then again the last time I was involved was in 2006 and for all I know keith rewrote the entire thing in assembly in 2008

xp

the Main Thing you're doing is making a button that says "ATTN MODS!" instead of one that says "HOPE U NEVER POST HERE AGAIN"

Can't we have both? And the moon on a stick?

SB gives those posters, largely ones we couldn't name because they're quieter, a weapon against bullies.

except it's more than that, it's a loose cannon that can be turned on anyone, and effectively wielded by a pretty small minority of posters. how many of those SBed coulds justly be accused of bullying?

i'm all for 100% mod power fwiw.

also Tuomas was SB'd for ruining at least 51 threads by openly refusing to stop derailing them & making them "This Is The Thread Where Tuomas Gets To Keep Asking The Same Question Until He Feel Satisfied," not for Just Being Tuomas

i should just give up

srsly the level of intentional point-missing and snarky bad faith is pretty unimpressive

except it's more than that, it's a loose cannon that can be turned on anyone, and effectively wielded by a pretty small minority of posters.

This is 100% the actual real problem with SB and I do not disagree with anybody whose concern is this. I just don't believe about 75% of the people who complain on principle when it sounds for all the world like they mean "oh no my friend who was being a total dick to everybody got banned".

Tuomas's SBing proved that even a small minority of SBs on stupid grounds is not acceptable.

― Friday: vuvuzela club meeting (Autumn Almanac), Monday, November 22, 2010 12:38 AM (42 seconds ago) Bookmark

huh? who made you the fuckin' king of deciding which SBs really 'count'

he got 51 votes and was cast off the island

the system works

dude this is precisely what anonymous flagging would do, too! AND it would stop bullies from SBing ppl just for lolz. like the Main Thing you're doing is making a button that says "ATTN MODS!" instead of one that says "HOPE U NEVER POST HERE AGAIN"

But considering SB doesnt automatically ban anyone as it is, isnt it doing that already?

A much simpler solution would be for mods to remove any and all SBs that aren't for obvious egregious posts.

yeah, I mentioned my discomfort with this in my first post upthread. I don't want to be in the position of judging this SB worthy and that one unworthy

huh? who made you the fuckin' king of deciding which SBs really 'count'

he got 51 votes and was cast off the island

the system works

― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Monday, November 22, 2010 12:41 AM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

IRL lol over post/un here

no, it isn't. xp to trayce

But considering SB doesnt automatically ban anyone as it is, isnt it doing that already?

― And this one time, on Bandcamp... (Trayce), Monday, 22 November 2010 00:41 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^ this - dunno how many times mods need to state that 51 and out *isn't* automatic.

This is 100% the actual real problem with SB and I do not disagree with anybody whose concern is this. I just don't believe about 75% of the people who complain on principle when it sounds for all the world like they mean "oh no my friend who was being a total dick to everybody got banned".

― aerosmith: the acid house years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, November 21, 2010 6:40 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

how is that relevant

350 "new" answers. My god.

relevant in creating a straw man you can repeatedly dismiss

i mean dude, if you LIKE suggest bans because they empower quiet ilxors with a means of arousing mod action (make your own dirty joke here), but also think they can be misused by bullies ~as they have on this very thread~, then you'd think you might be open to a system that preserves the former and literally eliminates the latter.

huh? who made you the fuckin' king of deciding which SBs really 'count'

Precisely the sort of aggression I was hoping to avoid itt

350 "new" answers. My god.

yeah mods should really just code a bot to write these threads once a month tbh, save everyone typing all that shit every time.

can someone summarise the intelligent arguments itt, especially re: flag post system

am most in favour of the gibreel/nakhchivan 'voice yr discontent' system which WmC has used on me to great effect recently, but maybe a flag post system would work - anyway please can we cut thru the terrible energy-sapping noise and summarise

i have louis

so sad that i have to go to bed and miss all the fun.

so sadder than i mean that.